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Rules of Chess: Check, Mate, and Stalemate. Answers to frequently asked questions.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Anonymous wrote on Wed, Aug 18, 2004 11:55 PM UTC:

In response to the comment on 2004-02-16, those five material combinations are not the only ways to get checkmate, if the opponent has pieces in addition to his/her king. For example, if White has a king on a1 and a rook on b1, and Black has a king on a3 and a knight on b4, Black can checkmate with ...Nc2#. For K+N+N vs. K, it is possible (albeit unlikely) that the stronger side can checkmate, if the lone king has backed up into the corner, so such a postion is not an automatic draw. However, it is likely that the 50-move rule will be invoked before checkmate. If a rook's pawn is impeded by a lone enemy king, the game is not neccesarily drawn. For example, White has a king on a1 and a pawn on a2, and Black has a king on a3. It is White's turn. Black has just managed to get in front of the pawn with ...Ka3. The game can continue 1. Kb1 Kb4 2. Kb2 Kc4 3. a4 Kd5 4. a5 Kd6 5. a6 Kd7 6. a7 Kd8 7. Kc3 Dd7 8. Kd4 Kd8 9. Kd5 Ke7 10. Kc6 Kd8 11. Kd6 Ke8 12. Ke6 Ke8 13. Kf6 Kg8 14. Kg6 Kh8 15 a8R#. This of course does not assume best play for both sides. If draws were declared based on that, a game would be a draw from starting position!